Vodafone Idea Limited (NSE:IDEA)
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Sep 11, 2026, 3:15 PM IST
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Q1 26/27

Aug 11, 2026

Summary

Revenue grew 6% year-over-year to INR 11,689 crore, with ARPU up 10.2% and the first positive net subscriber addition since the merger. EBITDA margin improved to 43.1%, CapEx accelerated, and net debt reduced, supporting a robust outlook for growth and network expansion.

Operator

Ladies and gentlemen, good day and welcome to the Q1 FY 2027 results conference call hosted by Vodafone Idea. As a reminder, all participant lines will be in the listen-only mode, and there will be an opportunity for you to ask questions after the presentation concludes. Should you need assistance during this conference, please signal an operator by pressing star then zero on your touchtone phone. Please note that this conference is being recorded. I now hand the conference over to Mr. Abhijit Kishore from Vodafone Idea. Thank you, and over to you, Mr. Kishore.

Abhijit Kishore
CEO, Vodafone Idea

Thank you, [Davin]. Good afternoon and a very warm welcome to all of you. Thank you for making the time to be here today. On 10th August 2026, our board of directors adopted the unaudited results for the quarter ending June 30, 2026. All the results related documents are available on our website. I hope you will have a chance to go through the same. Our robust quarter one FY 2027 operating and financial performance has been an endorsement of our well-defined strategy, superior execution. Let me share our progress on the key strategic initiatives, after which I will hand over to Tejas, who will share the details on the company's financial.

I would like to begin by updating you on seven critical business parameters that we had mentioned in the last earning call as well. I am happy to share that all seven of these critical business parameters are now trending positively.

Our revenue improved 6% Y-on-Y to INR 11,689 crores. Our cash EBITDA demonstrated double-digit growth of 13.5%, stood at INR 2,475 crores. We also increased our subscriber base to 193.1 million customers since the last quarter. Net subscriber addition, which turned the corner February last quarter, has continued its trajectory. We delivered our first quarter of positive net subscriber addition since merger. We will continue this momentum. Our churn reduced by 24 basis points year-on-year this quarter. We remain focused to reduce our churn with a sustained network investment, as well as get a competitive share of quality growth additions as we expand our coverage and enter new geographies. We also added nearly 3,000 new unique broadband towers during the quarter and over 15,600 new sites over the last 12 months, expanding our pan-India 4G coverage to 87%.

On 5G, we have hit substantial strides by expanding our footprint significantly. I am pleased to share that our 5G services are now live in over 200 cities across all our 17 circles where we have 5G spectrum. Our disciplined execution and commitment to deliver superior network experience has yielded robust progress despite prevailing geopolitical headwinds, including the CapEx deployment quarter one FY 2027. Our customer ARPU grew from INR 177, quarter one FY 2026 to INR 195 in quarter one FY 2027, a growth of 10.2% year-on-year, highest in the industry and a sequential improvement of 2.6%. The customer ARPU has now been increasing for 20 consecutive quarters.

Customer ARPU expansion over the last year has been driven primarily by premiumization, which is evident from our improving 4G/5G subscriber mix, which stood at 67.4% in quarter one FY 2027, up from 64.4% in quarter one FY 2026, as well as higher data usage by per broadband subscriber. We closed this quarter with 130.1 million 4G/5G subscribers, up from 127.4 million quarter one FY 2026. Our focused execution has also translated to better customer engagement, as reflected in data usage. The average data usage by 4G/5G subscribers improved 25.2% year-on-year to 21.7 GB in quarter one FY 2027. Overall, as a result, our data usage in quarter one FY 2027 increased year-on-year by nearly 28% to 88.4 PB per day from 69.1 PB per day, quarter one FY 2026.

These crucial business parameters well clearly reflect that the customers are getting a better network experience since we have made sustained investments and continue to remain engaged.

Operator

Sorry to interrupt, sir. This is the operator. Sir, the line is getting slightly unclear for you. May I try reconnecting you, sir?

Abhijit Kishore
CEO, Vodafone Idea

Yeah.

Operator

Sure. Thank you. Give me one moment, please. Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, we are now reconnected with the management. Over to you, sir.

Abhijit Kishore
CEO, Vodafone Idea

Okay. Just to cover that we've just spoken on all the seven critical parameters, which is all moving in the right direction. Moving on to the funding and its mobilization through CapEx. On the funding front, we have two important updates. First, on the warrants, we have received INR 1,183 crores as part proceeds from the issue of warrants to our promoters, Aditya Birla Group. Second, I am delighted to share that we were assigned CRISIL A-/Stable rating by CRISIL in May 2026, followed by a credit rating upgrade to [ICRA]A- (Stable) by ICRA in June 2026. The ratings were assigned and upgraded by CRISIL and ICRA, respectively, for certain long-term bank facilities, considering the positive development over the last few months. I also want to update you on the broader financial architecture that supports our CapEx plan of INR 45,000 crores over the next three years.

This architecture is built on three cohorts. First is a consortium of public sector banks led by SBI with six to seven participating banks. Second cohort is of the Indian private banks, and the third one is of the ECB with foreign banks. We remain meaningfully engaged with our lenders across these three cohorts and have made substantial progress with them. I am happy to share that we have successfully raised our first tranche of funding, INR 6,400 crores, including partial proceeds of INR 1,183 crores from warrants and debt proceeds, including non-funded base facilities through ECB and Indian private banks. We already placed orders for INR 9,000 crores CapEx till now, which also includes the CapEx undertaken in quarter one FY 2027 of INR 1,930 crores. The supplies and execution versus these orders have already commenced and will continue.

We are now focused on accelerating network expansion with fresh orders from Ericsson, Nokia, Samsung, and other partners, which will be executed as we move forward. We are hopeful of closing the discussion with the PSU banks led by SBI, as well as continue work on other debt raise streets. Next, our differentiated product offerings and market initiatives. Our focus is on enriching customers' digital lifestyle with experiences that extend well beyond just voice and data. Towards this, we partnered with Spotify to offer our postpaid Vi Max subscribers a premium music streaming experience. For prepaid subscribers, we launched Vi Edu+ , a co-branded Non-Stop Hero promotion in partnership with Physics Wallah across Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan, combining unlimited connectivity with digital learning benefits for students.

We also launched Vi InstaData nationally, an emergency data source giving eligible prepaid users 1 GB of extra data instantly their daily data limit drops below 10 MB. It's two days of validity adjusted from their active plan. We further strengthened the international roaming portfolio with the launch of Choose Your Own Plan, which offers subscribers greater flexibility through a wider range of validity, enabling them to choose a plan best suited to their travel requirements. Our truly unlimited roaming plan is now available across 59 countries. We also partnered with Meta to enable silent mobile verification across Meta platforms like WhatsApp, Facebook, and Instagram, enabling safer, seamless, and password-less digital experience for millions of users. We are creating seamless authentication experience for users across one of the country's most widely used digital platforms. Our proactive identification mitigation solution, SPARK, was built for strengthening Vodafone Idea's cyber resilience.

We are now upgrading it to AI-led early detection. These advancements strengthen our innovation, ensuring we stay ahead of emerging threats. Our recent brand campaign, Everyone Is Priority, re-emphasized a larger belief that every customer deserves an optimal network experience, further strengthening brand-differentiated positions. Moving on to our enterprise business. Vi Business continued to strengthen its position as a trusted enterprise partner through a comprehensive portfolio of future-ready digital solutions backed by robust 5G infrastructure and a growing ecosystem of strategic technology partners. During the quarter, demand for Vi Business solutions remained strong across connectivity, cloud, IoT, business communication, mobility, and cybersecurity, driving increased enterprise adoption across key sectors including BFSI, manufacturing, utilities, logistics, and government. We also unveiled MSME ReadyForNext 5.0 on World MSME Day, Q 2026. The latest edition, India's largest digital advisory platform for MSMEs.

Vi Business signed a memorandum understanding with Andhra Pradesh MSME Development Corporation to digitally empower over 1 lakh SME in the state. We believe the telecom industry is well-positioned for growth as need for connectivity is driven by a fast-growing economy, a growing and younger population, rising technology adoption across all age groups, and lower rural penetrity. Our improving trend, the recent positive development, gives us increasing confidence in our ability to participate in the industry growth story. With that, I'll hand over the call to Tejas, our CFO, for the financial commentary. Thank you.

Tejas Mehta
CFO, Vodafone Idea

Thank you, Abhijit. Good afternoon, everyone. We continue to witness improving trends across key financial and operating metrics. Last quarter, I highlighted that the average daily revenue was the highest in the last six years. We have now sustained that momentum with another quarter of revenue growth. The revenue for the quarter was INR 11,689 crore, registering YoY growth of 6%, a 3.2% improvement on a sequential basis, driven by ARPU expansion. The EBITDA for the quarter crossed INR 5,000 crore mark and reached INR 5,034 crore, improving by 9.1% YoY. The EBITDA margin improved by over 120 basis points from 41.8% to 43.1% in the same period.

The cash EBITDA for the quarter improved by 13.5% to INR 2,407 crore versus the same quarter last year. The cash EBITDA improved despite the rollout of over 15,600 broadband sites during the last 12 months, reflecting a focus on overall cost management.

Depreciation and amortization expenses and the net finance cost for the quarter, INR 5,467 crore and INR 4,925 crore respectively. Excluding the impact of Ind AS 116, the depreciation and the amortization expense and the net finance cost for the quarter were INR 3,862 crore and INR 3,701 crore respectively. Additionally, we also recorded a benefit of INR 1,816 crore in the exceptional item on account of the fair value adjustment of the earmarked shares from Vi. This remeasurement of fair value will be undertaken every quarter, and its impact adjusted in exceptional item till the shares are liquidated. Due to the supply side issues arising from the geopolitical constraints, the CapEx investment for the quarter was INR 1,930 crore. As Abhijit has guided, we intend to accelerate our network expansion, towards which we have already placed orders with our partners.

Our bank debt has reduced to only INR 211 crores as of June 30th, from INR 1,926 crores as of June of the prior year, a reduction of INR 1,715 crores in the last 12 months. The free cash and bank balance as of June 30th stands at INR 6,538 crores. Our recent credit ratings and the continued promoter support have been a significant catalyst for ongoing debt conversation, which further strengthens our conviction in the execution roadmap laid by us. I would like to hand over by reiterating that this quarter's results reflect our growth momentum, translating into improving operational and financial performance, and the highlight being net customer addition for the first time since the merger. With that, I hand the call back to [Davin]. Thank you.

Operator

Thank you very much. We will now begin the question-and-answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star and one on their touch-tone telephone. If you wish to withdraw yourself from the question queue, you may press star and two. Participants are requested to please use handsets while asking a question. Ladies and gentlemen, we will now wait for a moment while the question queue assembles. Our first question comes from the line of Sanjesh Jain with ICICI Securities. Please go ahead.

Sanjesh Jain
Analyst, ICICI Securities

Yeah, thank you. Thanks for the opportunity. A couple of questions from my side, Abhijit. First, on the subscriber transition and the benefit of the network, how should we see from here on, particularly on the mobile customer, how should it translate? What has been the trend in the circles now that we have implemented CapEx in last one year? Have we seen those circles turning positive in terms of mobile subscriber net add?

Abhijit Kishore
CEO, Vodafone Idea

Yeah. Sanjesh, do you have more questions? Then I can take all of them, or do you want to respond right now?

Sanjesh Jain
Analyst, ICICI Securities

No, I will handle. Second, on the ARPU, we have been bridging the ARPU gap versus the peers. How much more do you think it is possible before the transition of 4G and 5G really helps push the ARPU growth? How much more is it possible by improving the efficiency within the network to take the ARPU to, say, next one year? What are we targeting? That is number two. Number three, on the CapEx, we said that we have put up INR 9,000 crore of CapEx. We have already invested close to INR 2,000 in this quarter. By spending this INR 19,000 crore this year, where do we see our network capacity in terms of expansion from the current level?

Abhijit Kishore
CEO, Vodafone Idea

Okay. Thanks, Sanjesh, for asking me the question.

Sanjesh Jain
Analyst, ICICI Securities

Yeah.

Abhijit Kishore
CEO, Vodafone Idea

Okay. Let me take the first one. On the subscriber addition, the answer is clearly yes. We look at it at different cohorts on all these 17 markets that we have defined for ourselves, and obviously where we are putting the network, in the rural as well as in the urban markets. This club, the 5G, wherever we had rolled out, we clearly see a difference on the customer attentivity, which is what I spoke of 0.24% that we see over the last year, which is improving. This is visible across the circles. Obviously, as I say, the journey continues. We have put 15,500 sites in the last one year and 32,000 sites on 4G in the last two years. We see a significant delta being placed. But the journey continues, and we still have where we need to put our 4G sites in.

As and when we are putting the 4G sites and the 5G sites, we clearly see. That is the one. Second is, obviously, as we said, this is the first quarter for us on the subscriber addition to be positive, largely led between postpaid and M2M. Prepaid is also turning leaf, and we see a clear and significant intent churn quality of the gross acquisition that we acquire now. It is all pointing in the right direction. As far as the ARPU is concerned, as I said, we have seen it grown by 10%. We expect to keep the same momentum.

This is obviously organic ARPU growth, which is where we have a differentiated opportunity between the mix of customers of between a 2G and a 4G, 5G, as well as unlimited voice and unlimited data customers, and then between the unlimited data and the Non-Stop Hero, which is a differentiated offering for us. We continue, and we hope to see that we will continue the similar trend, better than where we are today, on the ARPU of INR 195, we had a blend in there. On the CapEx, our guidance on the CapEx continues. We are looking at the INR 45,000 crore for the next three years, as we have said. The first quarter, because of the supply chain headwinds, we saw a little bit of a booted INR 2,000 odd crore of the CapEx spend.

As I indicated, we have already placed the order for 9,100, which includes the INR 1,930 crore of the CapEx, which has been deployed. We intend to deploy all of these CapEx over the next two quarters, less than two quarters. The intensity continues. We are looking at deploying roughly around 3,500 sites a month on an average, year on.

Sanjesh Jain
Analyst, ICICI Securities

3,500 you said, is it the tower count or the amount

Abhijit Kishore
CEO, Vodafone Idea

The tower count on the 4G.

Sanjesh Jain
Analyst, ICICI Securities

Tower count on the 4G.

Abhijit Kishore
CEO, Vodafone Idea

Yeah.

Sanjesh Jain
Analyst, ICICI Securities

Thanks. Abhijit, one question on the postpaid. Now that the Fast Lane 5G is becoming a reality in India, do you see risk to your postpaid customer?

Abhijit Kishore
CEO, Vodafone Idea

On the contrary, Sanjesh, I'll say that we have seen an increase in our postpaid acquisition as well as retentivity. As we speak, we don't see that as a challenge. However, we continue to provide experience, and we have enough capacity to provide the experience to our customers, not only postpaid, but postpaid and prepaid equally.

Sanjesh Jain
Analyst, ICICI Securities

Got it. Anything on the 5G, how many towers we have done? I know you said 200 + cities.

Abhijit Kishore
CEO, Vodafone Idea

Yeah.

Sanjesh Jain
Analyst, ICICI Securities

But some specific number in terms of tower coverage, that would be helpful.

Abhijit Kishore
CEO, Vodafone Idea

Yes. So now as we speak, we are over 16,000 sites in 5G. We intend to cover another 200 + cities over the next two quarters.

Sanjesh Jain
Analyst, ICICI Securities

That is very helpful. Thanks, Abhijit, and that is sufficient for the current quarters.

Abhijit Kishore
CEO, Vodafone Idea

Thank you, Sanjesh. Thank you.

Operator

Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Aditya Suresh with Macquarie. Please go ahead.

Aditya Suresh
Analyst, Macquarie

Yeah, thank you. So two items. First, Abhijit, if you can speak to us about your cash EBITDA targets, which you had articulated a few months back. Can you just reiterate what the guidance is or what the ambition is over the next three years, and if you could break that down for us in terms of how much of that is going to be the top line versus margin expansion? That's the first item. The second item is a clarification. Could you clarify what is the position of net debt as of this quarter? That's one. And two is, within your subscriber number, how much of these subscribers are in that M2M category? Thank you.

Abhijit Kishore
CEO, Vodafone Idea

Sorry, Aditya, if you could just repeat the second question. You said what is the net addition?

Aditya Suresh
Analyst, Macquarie

No, so what is your current net debt position?

Abhijit Kishore
CEO, Vodafone Idea

Net debt. Okay.

Aditya Suresh
Analyst, Macquarie

Also, if you can clarify on your M2M subscribers. Thank you.

Abhijit Kishore
CEO, Vodafone Idea

Okay. I will take the first one first, and Tejas, you can chime in. On the cash EBITDA, we had INR 9,200 crore of cash EBITDA last year. We are at INR 2,750 this year. I think our guidance for the next three years was 3x of the cash EBITDA, which is obviously built with certain assumptions on the organic as well as some of the price corrections which will happen. That guidance continues, and we are moving in the right direction as far as that is concerned, because that was obviously built over a customer as well as on the ARPU. That guidance continues, clearly. On the top line, when we had looked at the total cash EBITDA of 3x, we had taken a guidance of a CAGR of around 16.8% for three years, which also continues as we speak.

On the net debt, as Tejas said, we started the year with INR 700 odd crore of the bank debt that we had. We made a payment of INR 500 + crore this quarter, and as we stand today, we are at INR 211 crore of the bank debt. In addition to that, we have taken the NCD borrowing of INR 3,300 crore. That is the debt that we have. From a bank debt point of view, it is INR 211 crore from the NCD, which we had raised in the month of December last year. That is INR 3,300 crore. That is the only debt that we have. On the M2M, I think it is a good story. We are kind of seeing a good traction in all the four verticals that we play, be it automatic meter reading, vehicle tracking, connected car, as well as point of sale.

We see good traction, and over the last one year, we have actually doubled our net addition as far as the M2M is concerned, and that trajectory is a very strong trajectory. We have a pretty dominant position in the connected car space as far as the IoT is concerned.

Tejas Mehta
CFO, Vodafone Idea

Well, I think I'll just It is clarified, Aditya, just open net debt for the quarter, we are ending at INR 3,489 crores. So that's the two constituents that Abhijit mentioned, and that was INR 4,001 crores in the last quarter.

Aditya Suresh
Analyst, Macquarie

Could you just clarify the

Tejas Mehta
CFO, Vodafone Idea

Sure

Aditya Suresh
Analyst, Macquarie

subscriber base in itself on M2M?

Abhijit Kishore
CEO, Vodafone Idea

We don't give the breakup, Aditya, on that. As I indicated that the postpaid, as well as the M2M is tracking pretty well. Prepaid is there. We have a job to do, and that's what the focus is now. As we roll out more and more sites, we are reaching to the places where we don't cover today, and that's the focus area.

Aditya Suresh
Analyst, Macquarie

Thank you.

Abhijit Kishore
CEO, Vodafone Idea

Thank you, Aditya.

Operator

Thank you. Our next question is from the line of Gaurav from Axis. Please go ahead.

Speaker 6

Yeah. Hi, I just had couple of questions. One is on your network OpEx. That number has sort of remained broadly stable in the last few quarters, even though your network has obviously seen a sharp improvement. How should we sort of think about this going ahead?

Tejas Mehta
CFO, Vodafone Idea

Gaurav, thanks for the question. I think we had similar question also in the previous quarter. I think two ways to answer. I think as we look at our cost efficiency effort, we will look at bringing efficiency into our network cost. Yes, while you said we have been rolling out additional sites, we have been able to, in a way, manage the overall network cost. Having said that, we have seen some inflationary challenges from diesel, et cetera, so you might see a little bit of that. But overall, I would say we have been able to offset some of the increases with internal efficiency, and some of it probably might get reflected in the coming quarters. But last two quarters, we have been able to offset that internally.

Speaker 6

Understood. The next question is on your roaming access charges. That has seen a sharp increase. Is there anything related to some intra-circle roaming or how should we sort of think about this?

Tejas Mehta
CFO, Vodafone Idea

No, I think, nothing to do with the intra-circle roaming and nothing structural. Like any business, there are a few lines of business that we have. We have a wholesale line of business, which in this quarter we have seen a better participation, and that comes with a higher roaming cost. If you will see the same line in the prior quarter, that was a little bit lower. So on an average, if you see the increase is not that high. Again, it is a cash-accretive business, slightly higher cost and a lower percentage margin, but an overall cash-accretive business that we were able to participate higher in this quarter.

Speaker 6

Thank you.

Abhijit Kishore
CEO, Vodafone Idea

Thank you, Gaurav.

Operator

Thank you. Our next question is from the line of Balaji Subramanian with IIFL. Please go ahead.

Balaji Subramanian
Analyst, IIFL

Yeah. Congrats on a decent set of results and also taking my question. I just had one. If I look at the postpaid additions, they are at a multi-quarter high. But I can also see that a lot of that is probably led by M2M. If I look at the TRAI number, 2 million M2M subscribers were added in the June quarter. That means, there was a slight dip in the postpaid subscriber base ex-M2M in the June quarter, which is probably after four quarters of positive additions on the postpaid ex-M2M front. Has this got anything to do with, I know this question was also touched upon earlier, but has it got anything to do with the priority plan, Airtel Fast Lane, that was recently launched by Bharti, and do you see that as a risk?

Because postpaid is where Vodafone Idea has been fairly strong, and we also saw that in the quarter that went by, Bharti's postpaid additions crossed the 1 million mark for the first time. How would you kind of plan to face off this challenge? That would be my only question.

Abhijit Kishore
CEO, Vodafone Idea

Yeah. No, thanks, Balaji, for asking that question. We have not seen, as I said, even to Sanjesh, we have not seen any dip in the postpaid business. Even the net addition for us in postpaid has been consistently over the last six to eight quarters, been positive. It is growing. There is no dip that we have seen at all. As far as the M2M is concerned, clearly there is an increase, in quarter one over the last quarter, which is where you see the increase in the M2M part. Both these businesses are pretty stable business and a net addition positive business for us, so we do not see that. That is one. Second, as I said, that our focus from the retail stores that we have, we have 2,600+ retail stores in 650+ towns, where we have Stores and in-building stores.

Across these stores, we do not see any dip whatsoever across the country as far as this business is concerned. We do not want to comment on what competition is planning, but we do not really see anything. On the contrary, we are adding subscribers.

Balaji Subramanian
Analyst, IIFL

Got it. Thank you, and all the best.

Abhijit Kishore
CEO, Vodafone Idea

Thank you.

Operator

Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Saurabh Handa with Citigroup. Please go ahead.

Saurabh Handa
Analyst, Citigroup

Yeah. Thank you for the opportunity. My first question was on the funding that you spoke about. You've raised funds of INR 6,400 crores now. Of this, if INR 1,200 crores is the upfront warrant money, which had already come in June, could you just tell us a bit more about this balance of INR 6,200 of incremental funding? How much of this is debt versus non-fund based? And is the source of debt, is it ECBs or is it Indian banks?

Tejas Mehta
CFO, Vodafone Idea

Yeah. Thanks, Saurabh, for asking that question. You're right. We've got the INR 1,183 crores, which is a partial part of the warrant, and we have been able to raise, as I said, in the three cohorts. This is primarily from the ECBs and the Indian private bank. And this is a mix of both debt as well as the non-funded facility. Can't give you the split, but it is a split between both of them. And there is a part of the ECB as well in this.

Saurabh Handa
Analyst, Citigroup

Okay. You had cash on books of INR 6,600 in June. To this, should we be adding this INR 5,200 to look at how much visibility you have in terms of how much you can spend over the next few quarters, even without, say, bank debt funding? Is that the right way to think about it?

Tejas Mehta
CFO, Vodafone Idea

Yeah, I think that is largely the right way to think about, which is why we said when we have placed orders of close to INR 9,000 crores or INR 9,100 crores, as Abhijit said, that is also leveraging the opening cash balance that we have in the business.

Saurabh Handa
Analyst, Citigroup

Okay, got it. My second question is again on M2M. Just to give you some numbers here. On postpaid, you have reported a growth of 1.8 million subscribers quarter on quarter. As per TRAI, your M2M subscribers are up by 2 million quarter on quarter. If you subtract M2M, you get a slight dip in postpaid, I think, which is what some of the other participants were also talking about. Are we looking at this the right way, or are there some M2M subscribers which are prepaid and not postpaid? We just wanted to understand this better.

Abhijit Kishore
CEO, Vodafone Idea

No, I do not think there is any prepaid subscriber as far as the M2M is concerned. They are all postpaid subscribers. It could be a timing gap because there are certain businesses which are the bootstrap business. That could be the only delta that you could have. Otherwise, as I said, whether it is in the gross acquisition or the net addition, there is no structural challenge that we find in the business.

Saurabh Handa
Analyst, Citigroup

Okay, that is great. Thank you for the clarification. Thank you.

Abhijit Kishore
CEO, Vodafone Idea

Thank you.

Operator

Thank you. Our next question is from the line of Hardik Goyal with Union Mutual Fund. Please go ahead.

Hardik Goyal
Analyst, Union Mutual Fund

Hi, sir. Thanks for this opportunity. Sir, my question is there talks between you and BSNL for tower and infra sharing? If so, will that be more accretive to your margin than your already mentioned guiding? Thank you.

Abhijit Kishore
CEO, Vodafone Idea

We already have, Hardik, some relationship with BSNL, where we do the tower sharing with BSNL. That is the one that we are doing right now. Other than that, there is no other tower sharing as we speak.

Hardik Goyal
Analyst, Union Mutual Fund

Thank you, sir.

Abhijit Kishore
CEO, Vodafone Idea

Thank you.

Operator

Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, to ask a question, you may please press star and one. Our next question is from the line of Kishan with DAM Capital. Please go ahead.

Kishan Mundhra
Analyst, DAM Capital

Yeah. Hi, sir. Thanks for taking the question. Just one question from my end. Sir, the ARPU growth that you have reported for the customer ARPU growth, is it possible for you to bifurcate the same between 2G to 4G upgrades, between international roaming, prepaid to postpaid? Is that possible?

Abhijit Kishore
CEO, Vodafone Idea

Kishan, we normally do not have, but I can give you a little bit of a flavor on that to say that, between a customer who is a 2G to a 4G customer, you typically see an upgrade value of an ARPU of roughly around INR 230 - INR 240. Between unlimited data customer, which is the quota customer, the way we call it, a 1.5 GB customer, when you migrate to a Non-Stop Hero, which is a truly unlimited, you see a delta of INR 30, INR 35. I think that is the kind of range that can give you a flavor of what is the kind of ARPU arbitrage that we have.

Kishan Mundhra
Analyst, DAM Capital

Okay. If I may ask-

Abhijit Kishore
CEO, Vodafone Idea

To add to that, we have a substantial amount of customers who are 2G customers on our network. That gives us the unique opportunity of really upgrading those customers, as and when we are rolling out the network, and we are reaching closer to the customers who would want to upgrade from their 2G to a 4G network or 5G for that matter.

Kishan Mundhra
Analyst, DAM Capital

Okay. If I may ask, year-over-year, the growth in ARPU, what would you think is the biggest driver? The 2G to 4G upgrades, would this be the key driving factor in ARPU among other things?

Abhijit Kishore
CEO, Vodafone Idea

Yeah, that's the premiumization that happens when the customer keeps upgrading themselves. One upgrade is when a 2G customer is upgrading to a 4G or a 5G handset. Second upgrade that we see is when you have a smartphone, but you are probably a multi-SIMmer, which means you have two or three operators in. Then you start using my network only for voice, and then you migrate to a data. That's another opportunity for me, and that's again, a very significant base for us. Then the third opportunity for us is when you are a data customer, but not unlimited or a truly unlimited data customer. Then you migrate to that depending upon how your data usage pattern is. Between the three, we upgrade our customers depending upon which cohort the customers belong to.

Each of these upgrade cohorts has an ARPU differential, which is where the ARPU buildup happens, in absence of any structured price changes.

Kishan Mundhra
Analyst, DAM Capital

Okay, sir. Understood. Thank you.

Abhijit Kishore
CEO, Vodafone Idea

Thank you, Kishan.

Operator

Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Bhavineni Srinivas, an individual investor. Please go ahead.

Bhavineni Srinivas
Investor, Private Investor

Thank you, sir. Vodafone Idea's debts are a very worrying thing for investors. Is there no chance to go for the equity instead of loans for the improvement of this Vodafone Idea?

Tejas Mehta
CFO, Vodafone Idea

Thank you for the question, sir. I think if you look at our balance sheet, sir, there is a lot of equity. In fact, all our investments have been funded by equity. Our debt as we speak is only INR 3,489 crores. I think being an infra company, there is enough room for debt. I think you started with this comment saying you are worried. I think Abhijit spoke about the efforts we are on the debt race. I think we are confident on that. Hence at this time, I think we are more focused on debt versus equity.

Bhavineni Srinivas
Investor, Private Investor

Okay, sir. Please minimize the debts and improve the company's balance sheet. Thank you, sir.

Tejas Mehta
CFO, Vodafone Idea

Thank you.

Operator

Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Aditya Bansal with Motilal Oswal. Please go ahead.

Aditya Bansal
Analyst, Motilal Oswal

Yeah. Thanks for taking my question. My first question is around the ARPU again. Would you be able to provide some color in terms of penetration on unlimited data plans and Non-Stop Hero plans in the mix currently? And where would you see this settling out over the medium term?

Abhijit Kishore
CEO, Vodafone Idea

Aditya, thanks for asking that question. As I was explaining that we have a pretty large and significant opportunity as far as both these cohorts are concerned. Whether it is unlimited voice moving to unlimited data or unlimited data moving to a Non-Stop Hero. We are upgrading, I would say, almost to the tune of 3 million - 4 million customers every quarter, on an upgrade basis, in this. That's the flavor that I can, at this point in time, that's the whole endeavor on the organic ARPU.

Aditya Bansal
Analyst, Motilal Oswal

Any sense on the current mix so that we also know what is the potential there?

Abhijit Kishore
CEO, Vodafone Idea

Sorry, can you repeat your question?

Aditya Bansal
Analyst, Motilal Oswal

Any idea on the current mix of this unlimited data plan, so that we also get an idea, like what could be the further potential from here on?

Abhijit Kishore
CEO, Vodafone Idea

Yeah. As I had indicated earlier as well, we have 66% of our customers who are on a smartphone between 4G and 5G, and 34% of the customers are on 2G. That is the big mix that we see. Between the mix of our customers who are on the smartphone, there is a significant amount of customers who are using data, and then we still have an opportunity, who have a smartphone, but are using us for voice. Probably in those areas, we have not reached on the 4G data. That is another big cohort of opportunity that we have.

Aditya Bansal
Analyst, Motilal Oswal

Sure. Thanks a lot. The second one is on the subscriber trends. I see there are several divergences this time in terms of trends on be it VLR, where we have a decline, customer wireless, ARPU, net of the M2M, there is a decline. What explain the same, like in terms of you are saying, on every circle, you are seeing some bit of improvement, versus VLR decline. Any comments on that?

Abhijit Kishore
CEO, Vodafone Idea

See, as I said, Aditya, there is no structural challenge that we see, but quarter one typically is a seasonal quarter where we see some customers migrating back from an urban to a rural market, and those are some of the markets where we feel that our network probably has still not been there. That is the only delta that we see at this point in time. There is no structural. Whether it is our gross addition is concerned or the quality of acquisition is concerned, or the customer retentivity is concerned, and I am talking both on postpaid and prepaid, this doesn't seem to be an issue. This is more a seasonal thing, and it will kind of start coming back. Rather, in the month of July, we have already started to see some good traction.

Aditya Bansal
Analyst, Motilal Oswal

Sure. Lastly, in terms of the site count, can you just reconfirm, you mentioned three and a half per month? What is the medium-term target that we are looking for the 4G sites?

Abhijit Kishore
CEO, Vodafone Idea

If you remember in the three-year guidance, I had said, roughly around 55,000, 57,000 sites on 4G and 86,000 - 90,000 sites on 5G. We are on that trend. We intend to finish our 4G rollout over the next 18 odd months so that we are at par on what our target is in the 17 circles. The 5G, as I said, because you will need a little bit of a fiber, that might get into the third year of execution as well. We maintain and then stand on that guidance.

Aditya Bansal
Analyst, Motilal Oswal

Thanks a lot. Thanks for answering the questions, and all the best.

Abhijit Kishore
CEO, Vodafone Idea

Thank you, Aditya.

Operator

Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, we will take that as the last question for today. I would now like to hand the conference over to Mr. Kishore for closing comments. Over to you, sir.

Abhijit Kishore
CEO, Vodafone Idea

Thanks, [Davin]. The defining theme for this quarter is momentum. We have delivered on all the seven critical business parameters. Each win, a building block towards our FY 2029 guidance. Our three-year targets are unambiguous, sustained net addition, double-digit revenue growth, and 3x on the cash EBITDA. We already demonstrated investment continuity across multiple quarters. The continued support from the promoters and our ongoing conversation with various sets of lenders gives us the confidence that we have the financial architecture in place to support our roadmap. Our path forward is clear, and what we are now focused is on execution. Thank you for joining in. We will meet you again next quarter. Thank you.

Operator

Thank you. On behalf of Vodafone Idea, that concludes this conference. Thank you all for joining us. You may now disconnect your lines.